Comment: The following article appeared in the Times of London on 30 April 2003

Cyprus sees ‘Berlin Wall’ begin to crumble

AFTER three decades of division, Cyprus saw its
“Berlin Wall” begin to crumble yesterday. Thousands of islanders
continued to cross the “green line” and Greek Cypriots were allowed to
stay up to three days a week in the north.

The two peoples will be brought closer together today
when the Greek Cypriot authorities announce measures to improve living
standards among the breakaway Turkish Cypriots.

The package, which comes after remarkable scenes of
reconciliation, is expected to help Turkish Cypriots to work and trade
in southern Cyprus and to gain access to healthcare and other state
benefits.

Thousands of people, bearing gifts and brimming with
goodwill, have crossed the island’s green line in both directions since
the surprise announcement last week by the Turkish Cypriot authorities
that they would open checkpoints for day trips.

Greek Cypriots left clutching cherished family
photographs that they thought had been lost forever. Others held bunches
of flowers and fruit cut from ancestral gardens.

Yesterday the Turkish Cypriot authorities said that
Greek Cypriots would be allowed to stay for up to three days a week in
the north after popular demand and in a further attempt to build
confidence.

The island has a population of just over 750,000 and in
six days 108,000 Cypriots have crossed the buffer zone.

Lellos Demetriades, a former mayor of Nicosia, Europe’s
last divided capital, said of the crossings: “This is now in the hands
of the people. The politicians will follow.”

Over the Orthodox Easter holiday Greek Cypriots were
queueing for up to 18 hours at the main crossing point in Nicosia to
drive across the ceasefire line. British peacekeepers from 47 Regiment,
Royal Artillery, are manning the buffer zone with a UN peacekeeping
force. More crossing points are planned to ease congestion.

Greek Cypriot families travelled in two or three cars,
ferrying generations back to homes that they had been forced to flee
nearly 30 years ago.

The island has been divided since Turkish troops
invaded the north in 1974, after a short-lived coup in Nicosia
engineered by the military junta then ruling Greece. Many houses were
found to be inhabited by Turkish Cypriots who had once lived in the
south; others had been taken by settlers from mainland Turkey.

However, in the first demonstration since restrictions
were eased, about 200 Greek Cypriots stormed a UN checkpoint yesterday
in an attempt to return to their homes. The Greek Cypriots overwhelmed
the small UN force east of Kato Pyrgos in an attempt to reach their
former homes in the Turkish-held village of Limnitis. UN soldiers formed
a human chain to prevent them reaching Turkish soldiers on the far
side.

In Kyrenia yesterday Michael Pilis, a 50-year-old
businessman enjoying the experience of sipping a beer in the spring
sunshine, said: “I feel happy, but confused. The Turkish Cypriots have
been so polite and friendly, but we really want a solution so that we
don’t have to come here as tourists. I am a refugee.”

Turkish Cypriots crossing south were offered coloured
eggs and traditional Easter biscuits by Greek Cypriots. “I’m
indescribably happy,” Mustafa Kasap, a 52-year-old Turkish Cypriot
worker, said as he stood in Eleftheria (Freedom) Square in southern
Nicosia. “I know these streets well. I have been watching and missing
them from afar for 29 years.” The partial lifting of restrictions by the
Turkish-held north, unimaginable even a month ago, has been welcomed by
the Cyprus Government, which is represented internationally by the
Greek Cypriots, and the European Union.

Both have insisted that it should not be a substitute
for a comprehensive peace deal, but many analysts are confident that the
new contacts will enhance the chances of solution. “We’re still not
there in terms of the political solution, but nothing like this has
happened since 1974,” Nicos Anastasiou, a school teacher involved in
bicommunal activities, said. “The Berlin Wall of Cyprus is now full of
cracks and holes. Thirty years of prejudices and stereotypes have
collapsed in days, along with the myth that there was no trust between
the communities.”

The deadlock began to ease last month when the
Greek-Cypriot south secured accession to the European Union.

History of a
divided island

Cyprus gained independence from the UK in 1960 after a
bloody campaign by Eoka (National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters),
which called for enosis, a union with Greece

A constitution protected the Turkish minority, but many
controlling measures were removed by the President, Archbishop
Makarios, who had been elected by Greek Cypriots

Intercommunal fighting broke out in 1963; in 1964 UN
peacekeepers were deployed on the island

In 1974 the military junta controlling Greece supported
a coup in Cyprus to remove Makarios and force enosis. Turkish
government troops took control of the north of the island and thousands
of Greek Cypriots fled; many “disappeared”